Automated oven appliance for baking and broiling food

ABSTRACT

An automated oven appliance for baking or broiling food in a cooking chamber is provided. The appliance comprises primarily of: two heating elements, one or more food baskets, baking pan, temperature sensor, cooking chamber, user interface panel, micro controller and two motors in a metal cabinet. Control algorithm stored in the micro controller determines cooking chamber temperature and temperature interval, as well as linear motion of food basket from and to the baking pan. Intervals of rotary motion of food basket in cooking chamber as part of the cooking process and ultimately shutting down of the appliance when food is cooked is also controlled by the micro controller algorithm.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The solution according to embodiments of the invention generally relates to household and professional electric or gas appliance for baking, roasting or broiling. More particularly, the solution relates to a new method of spicing for example meat or fish during baking, roasting or broiling. Even more particularly, the solution relates to an automated appliance for baking, roasting or broiling meat or fish disposed in the cooking chamber of the appliance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nowadays, household and professional baking, roasting or broiling appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber wherein, the food item is placed for baking, roasting or broiling. Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to cook food items therein. The heating elements typically include baking elements at the bottom and boiling elements at the top of the cooking chamber. The appliance can also include a convection fan used to circulate air within the cooking chamber as well as, shelves for placing food to be cooked. And lastly, knobs to select the kind of cooking for example, baking or broiling.

During baking, roasting or broiling operation, the food is typically spiced and placed in a baking pan and, subsequently placed on the shelve in the cooking chamber. The cooking knob is pushed after the cooking chamber door is closed.

The baking operation for example energizes heat of the baking elements at the bottom part of the cooking chamber. Alternation of temperature and duration of heat transfer within the cooking chamber is based on manufacturer pre-defined algorithms.

At some point during the baking process, spiced juice in the case of spiced food or juice from the food in the cased of un-spiced food will form at the bottom of the baking pan that the food is placed in. The food can be meat, fish or other food items that produce liquid when heated. At this juncture, the bottom side of the food which is submerged in the juice will be less cooked compared to the top part of the food. To make sure that both sides are cooked, the oven appliance user will typically open the cooking chamber and manually turn the sides of each piece of food in the baking pan and close the door for baking or broiling to resume. The process is repeated by the user at various intervals until the baking or broiling is completed; by which time, user will taste food or use a food thermometer to be convinced that the food is cooked to their desire. It should be noted that in some cases depending on the food, the amount of heat produced per interval and duration of heat in the cooking chamber, additional spiced liquid or water in the case of un-spiced food will need to be added in the baking pan containing the food. This will ensure that the food does not burn as a result of inadequate moister applied on the food surface.

Accordingly, an oven appliance that automates in part or in whole the manual tasks which a user performs when baking, roasting or broiling food in a household or professional oven, from when the food is put in the baking pan, placed in the cooking chamber, cooking chamber locked and food cooked to completion would be useful. The new aforementioned oven appliance is an embodiment of the application of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present subject matter provides an oven appliance which automates the processes performed by a user when baking, toasting or broiling in a household or professional conventional oven appliance known in the market today. The appliance disclosed in this invention consist of a cooking chamber wherein are one or more heating elements, food basket(s) and baking pan. The appliance also include electromechanical devices, control knobs as well as, microcontroller as part of the automation process.

In one exemplary embodiment which consist of two or more food baskets on two planes, the user places the food for example, meat or chicken in the food basket(s) and subsequently placing in the baking pan. When the appropriate knob is pushed, the heating element below the baking pan will produce heat in the case of baking/roasting or the upper heating element produces heat in the case of broiling. Heat fluctuation, duration of heat fluctuation and movements of the food basket(s) within the cooking chamber are based on pre-defined algorithm. The algorithm also controls electromechanical devices responsible for movements of the food basket(s) in the cooking chamber.

When the user pushes the knob as aforementioned, one of the heating elements will produce heat in the cooking chamber. After a pre-defined time period as per the algorithm, the two food baskets (in the configuration wherein two food baskets are used) placed horizontally and separated by a horizon support, will first be raised up from the baking pan followed by, a rotation of the food baskets and finally lowering the food baskets back into the baking pan; due to electromechanical action. This action ensures that food basket number 1 that was initially inside the baking pan is now out of the pan and, food basket number 2 is now in the baking pan. This vertical—up and down motion as well as, the 180 degrees rotation of the food baskets, mimics the manual tasks performed by user of a conventional oven appliance during baking/roasting or broiling food. The main goal of these motions is to ensure that, the food cooks evenly, kept moist or continuous spiced in the baking pan.

In another exemplary embodiment which consist of one or more food baskets on the same plane, the user places the food for example, meat or chicken in the food basket(s) and subsequently placing in the baking pan. When the appropriate knob is pushed, the heating element below the baking pan will produce heat in the case of baking/roasting or the upper heating elements produces heat in the case of broiling. Heat fluctuation, duration of heat fluctuation and movements of the food basket within the cooking chamber are based on pre-defined algorithm. The algorithm also controls electromechanical devices responsible for movements of the food basket in the cooking chamber. When the user pushes the knob as aforementioned, one of the heating elements will produce heat in the cooking chamber. After a pre-defined time period as per the algorithm, the food basket placed horizontally, will first be raised up from the baking pan followed by, a rotation of the food basket(s) and finally lowering the food basket(s) back onto the baking pan; due to electromechanical action. This action ensures that food items in the food basket that was interfacing with the baking pan has now been rotated 180 degrees while the other surface of the food item not interfacing with the baking pan. This vertical—up and down motion as well as, the 180 degrees rotation of the food basket, mimics the manual tasks performed by user of a conventional oven appliance during baking/roasting or broiling food. The main goal of these motions is to ensure that, the food cooks evenly, kept moist and continuous spiced in the baking pan.

In still another exemplary embodiment which include a receptacle to manually or automatically add liquid and spices to the baking pan as well as, have a means to automatically remove liquid from the baking pan if need be. This aforementioned mechanism will be incorporated to the oven appliance mentioned in [0008] and [0009] above.

In still another exemplary embodiment which includes an automated process of measuring food temperature before oven appliance is turned off to ensure that food is cooked to the user's desire. This automated food temperature measuring device and mechanism will be incorporated in the appliance mentioned in [0008], [0009] and [0010] above.

The aforementioned and other ancillary features and, advantages of the present invention will be better understood with references to the following descriptions, appended claims as well as accompanying drawings. The referenced drawings constitute part of the specification and illustrate the embodiments of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invention will be better understood in the following detailed description in light of the accompanying drawings:

FIGS. 1 and 2 depict two perspective views of an oven appliance in the exemplary embodiment disclosed in this invention.

FIG. 3 is a rear view perspective depicting internal components of the oven appliance.

FIG. 4—Right side perspective view without inner cabinet and cabinet right side walls.

FIG. 5 is exploded diagram of key components of the oven appliance.

FIG. 6—Key components of the oven appliance.

FIG. 7—Method with steps of automated operation of oven appliance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

References now will be made to the drawings to better understand the detailed description. FIG. 1 refers to a diagram showing a perspective view of oven appliance 20 in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. In this exemplary embodiment referenced here, a free standing household oven appliance 20 is disclosed however, the principle and processes of the invention can be applied to a free standing professional oven appliance used for baking, roasting, broiling or grilling food such as meat or fish as an example. The oven appliance may be powered by electric or gas heat source to cook the food however, if gas is used, electricity is still required to power the electro mechanical devices and components. Description of this invention moving forward will be focused on oven appliance powered by electric heat source. The description will provide one or more examples as a means of explaining the invention and by no means, serves as a limitation of this invention. It is apparent to those skilled in the art that variations and modifications can be made in the present disclosure without changes to the principles and scope of this invention. As an example, functions and features described herein as part of one embodiment can be combined or used in conjunction with another embodiment to create yet another embodiment. Hence, it should be known that this present invention covers all such variations and modifications because they are all within the claims of this disclosure.

Oven appliance 20 and its components depicted in FIGS. 1 through 5 include amongst other components a cabinet 01 which contains an inner cabinet 21 having the same geometrical shape as the cabinet 01 and, a cooking chamber 160 in the interior of inner cabinet 21. The inner cabinet 21 is a heat resistant, insulated enclosure that serves primarily the purpose of preventing heat dissipation from the cooking chamber 160 to the space between inner cabinet 21 and cabinet 01 where, electromechanical devices and components are installed. The oven appliance 20 has a door 02 mounted to the cabinet 01 with hardware such as hinges (not shown in the diagram) and a handle 03 mounted to the door 02. The user opens or closes the door 02 by the use of the handle 03 to access the cooking chamber 160. Pulling the handle 03 will open the cooking chamber 160 and pushing handle 03 forward will close the cooking chamber 160.

The oven appliance includes seals (not shown in the diagram) between the door 02 and cooking chamber 160 with the sole purpose of ensuring that heat and fumes does not dissipate from the cooking chamber 160. The door 02 has two glass panels 04 for viewing food in the cooking chamber 160 when door 02 is closed. One or more food baskets 100 are positioned in the cooking chamber 160 for receipt of food items to be baked, roasted or broiled as an example. The food basket 100 is attached to a horizontal spindle 05 and food basket support 19 which, is connected to two motors (motor 1, 80 and motor 2, 90) responsible for vertical and rotary motions of the food basket 100 through gear mechanism 22. A baking pan support 06 is also situated at the lower part of the cooking chamber 160 onto which, a baking pan 07 is placed.

Two heating elements 60, 70 are included in the oven appliance 20 both of which are disposed within the cooking chamber 160. In an exemplary embodiment as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 5, one heating element is placed at the adjacent bottom wall of the cooking chamber 160. This bottom heating element—bake heating element 60 is used for baking and roasting. The other heating element—broil heating element 70 is placed at the adjacent top wall of the cooking chamber 160 used for broiling food placed in the food basket 100.

Six side walls constitute the cooking chamber 160 which include a top wall 14 and a bottom wall 15 spaced apart and perpendicular to the vertical axis. A right side wall 16 and a left side wall 17 are laterally spaced apart. There is also a rear wall 18 that extends between the top wall 14 and the bottom wall 15 and between the left side 17 and the right side wall 16. And finally the cooking chamber door 02. These six sides extend to corresponding sides of the inner cabinet 21 having same geometric sides as the cabinet 01. Cooking chamber 160 is therefore defined as the space between the left side wall 17, right side wall 16, bottom wall 15, top wall, rear wall 18 of the inner cabinet 21 and the cooking chamber door 02. A liquid inlet 08 connected to a tube 09 that transports liquid into the baking pan 07 if need be is provided and positioned at the top part of the oven appliance 20. The liquid ensures that additional liquid or spices are added into the baking pan 07 which in turn provides additional moisture or spices to the cooked food as a result of the vertical and rotary motion during food cooking operation. A lid (not shown in diagram) is also positioned on the liquid inlet 08 to prevent heat in the cooking chamber 160 from dissipating during food cooking operation.

The oven appliance 20 is also equipped with a micro controller 40, FIG. 6 which is used to regulate operations of the oven appliance 20 and include movements of the food basket 100 as well as heat regulation from heating elements 60, 70. The micro controller 40 communicates with all components of the oven appliance 20 and based on pre-defined algorithm decides when and how each component have to operate. The micro controller 40 has a microprocessor and memory device wherein the pre-programmed algorithm is stored. The memory may be a random access memory—DRAM or read-only memory for example, a ROM or FLASH.

The micro controller can be located anywhere within the cabinet 01 of the oven appliance 20. In one embodiment, the micro controller is positioned inside the user interface panel 30 and communicates with electromechanical devices and other components through wired connections. The user interface panel 30 includes various components such as knobs 10 and display screen 11 to provide user feedback during operation of the oven appliance 20.

The micro controller 40 is also in communication with a heat sensor 50 placed in the rear wall of the cooking chamber 160. The heat sensor 50 could be a thermocouple or other such devices for measuring temperature in an enclosure such as the cooking chamber 160. Although in this exemplary embodiment the heat sensor 50 is placed at the rear wall of the inner cabinet 21 within the cooking chamber 160, it can be placed in any other preferred location in the cooking chamber 160. The heat sensor 50 controls when heat has to be produced by the heating elements 60, 70 in the cooking chamber 160. The control is based on a pre-programmed algorithm stored in the micro controller 40 memory device depending on user selected operation. The oven appliance 20 cooking chamber 160 temperatures are in turn, shown to the user via the display screen 11 on the user interface panel 30.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of key components of the oven appliance 20. As seen in the diagram, the micro controller 40 is in communication with user interface panel 30 and heat sensor 50 at a high level. When user selects the desired operation via the user interface panel 30, operation is registered by micro controller 40. The micro controller 40 in turn transmits the user desired operation to the other components for action based on predefined logic stored in the micro controller 40 memory. For example, if the selected operation by the user is to bake food, micro controller 40 will communicate with the bake heating element 60, motor 1, 80 and motor2, 90 to initiate heat for baking while motor1, 80 and motor2, 90 will exert vertical and rotary motions respectively on food basket 100; in accordance with programming logic stored in micro controller 40 memory. Heat temperature feedback is monitored by the heat sensor 50 and transmitted to the micro controller 40. In case where the user performs a broiling operation on the user interface panel 30, the user interface panel 30 will communicate with the micro controller 40 which will in turn communicate with the broiling heating element 70 to produce heat energy. Thereafter, all other components—motor1 80, motor2 90, food basket 100 and heat sensor 50 will function same way as the case of baking as aforementioned. The present disclosure relates specifically to the operation of motor1 80, motor2 90 and associated motions of the food basket 100 as part of the automation to replace manual processes performed by a user when baking, roasting or broiling food item such as meat or fish product in a household or professional oven appliance 20.

Construction and programming of the oven appliance 20 has been described above according to the embodiment of this invention; we now focus on an exemplary method 140 which comprises of several steps for baking or broiling in the oven appliance 20 as depicted in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a method 140 incorporated in the oven appliance 20 according to exemplary embodiment of the present subject matter. Method 140 can also be used for roasting or grilling as well using the same method 140 as described herein. The method 140 depicts automation steps described in this invention from when the user initiates the process of baking or broiling as an example by, pushing the corresponding knob for baking or broiling to start the oven appliance 20.

Using the case wherein the user desired operation is to bake in the oven appliance 20, the user will push the baking knob 10, and baking heat step 150 will be produced by the bake heating element 60 in the cooking chamber 160. This action introduces the initial pre-heating of the cooking chamber 160, step 160 as well as measurement of cooking chamber temperature step 170. When cooking chamber 160 temperature is 300 degrees Fahrenheit step 180, the temperature will be maintained for 10 minutes step 190 after which the baking heating elements 60 step 200 is turned off by the system based on pre-programmed logic stored in the micro controller. With the baking heating element 60 off, motor 1 80 will rotate through a rack 12, pinion 13 and gear assembly 22 attached to motor 1 80, the rotary motion will be translated to linear—vertically upward motion. This motion will move the food basket 100 vertically upwards step 210, from the baking pan to the center of the cooking chamber 160 due to, coupling between the rack, pinion, gear assembly, food basket support 19 and food basket 100. It should be noted that the use of rack 12 and pinion 13 is by way of example because other mechanisms known in the art can be used to translate rotary to linear motion. When the food basket 100 is moved vertically upwards step 210 and motor 1 80 stopped, motor 2 90 will perform a 180 degree rotation of the food basket 100 step 220 via a geared mechanism coupled to motor 2 90 and the spindle 05 attached a gear 22 and food basket 100. When motor 2 90 completely performs the 180 degree rotation of food basket 100, motor 1 80 will in turn initiate a vertically downward motion of the food basket 100 into the baking pan step 230. This vertically downward motion of the food basket 100 step 230 uses the same mechanisms as step 210 the only difference is that in step 230, motor 1 80 rotates anticlockwise or vice versa relative to step 210.

When the food basket 100 is lowered into the baking pan 07 step 230, the system will again turn on the baking heating element 60 step 240 and, subsequently repeat steps 170 through 240 successively until food is cooked step 250. The system will then turn off the baking heating element 60 step 260, checks to make sure that step 210 is achieved then ends the program and turns off the system. User can now open oven appliance door 02 and remove food from food basket 100 in the cooking chamber 160. It should be noted in this disclosure that the steps described herein method 140 can also be applied to broil food placed in the food basket 100 with the use of, broil heating element 70 in step 150 and all other steps are same as the case of baking. Furthermore, in all types of cooking performed in this disclosed invention, steps 160, 180, 190 and as well as the overall length of time it takes to complete steps 150 through 270 depends on the kind of food product. Hence, the exact temperature, heat duration and cooking duration for each food product will be determined during testing. Such testing may also determine final oven appliance configuration or programming logic. For example, testing may require that the oven appliance 20 have multiple cooking chambers 160 such that, each cooking chamber 160 is dedicated to a given food type during food cooking operation. Alternatively, the testing may require that the programming logic be modified to accommodate all food types in one cooking chamber 160. Any variation in configuration, design, programming, accessories, devices that stems from the embodiment disclosed in this invention be it during testing or otherwise, is part of the new oven appliance 20 disclosed herein.

Now that we have presented the design, configuration and programming of the embodiment of this invention, we will now discuss the power requirements. The exemplary embodiment presented in this new oven appliance 20 will be powered by 120 or 240 volts electricity mainly to power the heating elements. However, since not all components of the oven appliance 20 will operate on either of the aforementioned voltages, a voltage regulator, most of which are well known in the art today, will be used to step down the voltage to the appropriate voltage for each component of the new oven appliance 20. 

1. An automated method to bake or broil food in a cooking chamber situated in a household or professional oven appliance. The appliance comprises primarily of: two heating elements, one or more food baskets, baking pan, temperature sensor, cooking chamber, user interface panel, micro controller and two motors in a metal cabinet. The method includes the following steps: User starts oven appliance for baking or broiling food in cooking chamber and based on pre-defined algorithm stored in micro controller, system performs the following operations in steps: Initiate Preheating of cooking chamber—160 Measure cooking chamber temperature using the temperature sensor—170 When temperature is 300 degrees F.—180 Maintain temperature for 10 Minutes—190 Turn off baking/Broiling heat elements after 10 minutes—200 Send signal to motor 1 to perform vertical upward motion of food basket from baking pan to center of cooking chamber—210 Send signal to motor 2 to rotate food basket 180 degrees—220 Send signal to motor 1 to perform vertical downward motion of food basket from center of cooking chamber to baking pan—230 Turn on baking/Broiling heating element—240 Repeat steps 170 through 240 successively until food is cooked —250 Turn off heating elements—260 Repeat steps 210 through 270 End program and turn off oven appliance
 20. 2. The method in claim 1 wherein the heating element is a broiled heating element location at the top of the heating chamber powered by 120 or 240 volts.
 3. The method in claim 1 wherein un-spiced or spiced liquid is introduced in the baking pan through a liquid inlet via a tube to keep the food moist if necessary.
 4. Method in claim 1 wherein un-spiced or spiced liquid is removed from the baking pan if need be.
 5. Method in claim 1 wherein this disclosed automated oven appliance is used for grilling food products such as meat or fish. 